Last Thursday, the United Private Hospital Unions of the Philippines (UPHUP), a coalition of private healthcare workers, called for a press conference to push for the amendment of the continuing professional development (CPD) law, also known as Republic Act 10912, which lapsed into law in 2016. It can be recalled that the law was created to ensure that professionals practicing in the country are able to maintain and enhance their knowledge and skills. It covers licensed professionals like doctors, nurses, engineers, teachers, architects, accountants, and lawyers.
One of the amendments being asked by UPHUP is the transfer to the hospitals of the burden of expenses related to training fees. Currently, this is being shouldered by health professionals whose salaries are barely enough to pay for their personal expenses. The hospitals, the coalition reasoned, also benefit from the advancement of the workers’ careers. It is, therefore, a win-win scenario.
Since 2016 when it was implemented, the law has been met with negative comments from the stakeholders. The Professional Regulation Commission even conducted a survey last year and found out that about 95 percent of the respondents thought the law should be stopped because of “exorbitant fees, difficult requirements, confusing processes, and lack of accredited training providers for the CPD requisites.”
Even Sen. JV Ejercito filed a bill during the previous Congress to repeal the CPD law. He said that “…compliance to the law does not come cheap, particularly for struggling professionals. At this time, when… Filipinos struggle with soaring food prices, the 2.56 million registered Filipino professionals do not need the additional costly burden of complying with their CPD requirements.”
Aside from making the programs more accessible, flexible, and affordable, I believe it would also be good to expand the law’s coverage to include, say, professionals from the creative industries. It would be helpful, too, to award incentives to those who exceed minimum requirements, and to listen to stakeholders as to the ways that the law can be improved. Processes and requirements may be periodically evaluated or reviewed to make sure they are relevant and updated.
UPHUP and its members are likewise waiting for President Marcos to fulfill his promise of doing something to bridge the salary gap between private and public healthcare workers. Aside from the basic salary itself, their hazard pay rates, for example, are worlds apart: P100 to P300 a month for private hospital employees (unionized members), compared to the P9,000 monthly for government workers. It is, indeed, high time to review the legislation and policies that govern our healthcare workers, both from the public and private sectors, as the country’s well-being rests upon them especially during critical times, like what happened during the Covid-19 pandemic.